Electromagnetic field and the theory of conformal and biholomorphic invariants

This paper contains sections on: 1. Conformal invariance and variational principles in electrodynamics. 2. The principles of Dirichlet and Thomson as a physical motivation for the methods of conformal capacities and extremal lengths. 3. Extension to pseudoriemannian manifolds. 4. Extension to hermitian manifolds. 5. An extension of Schwarz's lemma for hermitian manifolds and its physical significance. 6. Variation of ''complex'' capacities within the admissible class of plurisubharmonic functions. The author concentrates on motivations and interpretations connected with the electromagnetic field. (author)